Tesla is a giant in the technological and automotive arenas, an innovator that is always striving to change the way the world perceives cars. They have taken on the difficult task of eliminating the need for fossil fuels by inventing a range of electric cars with the capacity to compete against their traditional counterparts. Take a look below for 21 interesting and fun facts about Tesla cars.

1. Tesla has the honour of being the 2nd oldest publicly listed automaker in the US. The oldest is Ford.

2. Detroit, Michigan is the heart of America’s automotive industry. But Tesla operates out of Silicon Valley in California.

3. Elon Musk is currently the face of Tesla. This has driven people to assume that he created Tesla. But the actual founders are Marc Tarpenning and Eric Eberhard.

4. The company got its name from Nikola Tesla. Eberhard was at Disneyland with his wife when the name came to him. She approved of his choice.

5. Elon Musk joined the company in 2004. He is a shareholder who owns 23% of the company’s stock.

6. In 2004, Tesla was seeking a cash infusion. They managed to deliver a driveable Tesla, attracting all the right attention and getting the financial assistance they needed to grow. Musk eventually entered the picture, becoming the chairman of the board of directors.

7. Musk’s ascension as the face of Tesla coincided with a souring of his relationship with Eberhard. Hostilities between the two eventually ended in a legal battle. The situation was resolved in a settlement out of court.

8. Elon Musk has injected $54.5 million of his own money into Tesla.

9. Tesla had a debt of $355 million that it paid off nine years early because of the company’s massive profits.

10. Whereas Tesla’s competitors use large format lithium-ion cells, they have created a battery pack with thousands of cheap commodity cells that are reminiscent of the batteries you see in laptops.

11. Tesla’s first electric vehicle was ‘The Roadster’. Debuting in 2008, Elon Musk called it a disaster. It has since been discontinued.

12. The Roadster’s descendants are the Model S and Model X.

13. The Model X won the ‘Motor Trend Car of the Year’ Award, the first electric vehicle to do so.

14. With an armoured shield that is more than 6mm thick protecting the underbody, some have compared the Model S to a tank.

15. The Model S has a 17-inch touch screen display, the largest interface of its kind on the market. You can use it to access the owner’s manual. The parking sensors will keep you apprised of your distance from the nearest obstacles.

16. The Model X has falcon doors for the backseat, a biohazard filter, and a windshield with the largest piece of glass any manufacturer has ever used in a production vehicle.

17. The Model X only requires 3.2 seconds to get from 0 to 60 mph. That’s faster than most supercars!

18. The Model X has a defensive mode designed to keep drivers safe from biological attacks.

19. Tesla intends to introduce Semis and self-driving mini-buses to America’s roads.

20. The company currently employs some 30,000 people.

21. Tesla have sold 125,000 cars since 2008 (at time of writing in 2019).